The LEGO Corner

Palifan

Sith Lord
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Messages
4,902
monkey_roo said:
Yeah, but this isn't an isolated thing, which is more worrying.

The batcave before it was a bit of a misstep, this years exclusive was a pointless trooper.

I see what you're saying about this years exclusive trooper but I must admit that I really like the Batcave, do you think it's a misstep due to there not being enough fans of the TV series buying lego or the set itself?

The new Hoth set does seem a slightly slim release if you have the other sets but for anyone who has no Hoth lego then it's a great place to start. I'm sure it's going to look great set up with all the older sets so do post a picture up when you get around to it. Also seeing your 5 year olds face playing with it is priceless as is my sons when he's messing around with his various lego sets :D

Ian
 

jedisearcher

Sith Lord
Joined
Feb 26, 2012
Messages
1,450
Palifan said:
monkey_roo said:
Yeah, but this isn't an isolated thing, which is more worrying.

The batcave before it was a bit of a misstep, this years exclusive was a pointless trooper.

I see what you're saying about this years exclusive trooper but I must admit that I really like the Batcave, do you think it's a misstep due to there not being enough fans of the TV series buying lego or the set itself?

The new Hoth set does seem a slightly slim release if you have the other sets but for anyone who has no Hoth lego then it's a great place to start. I'm sure it's going to look great set up with all the older sets so do post a picture up when you get around to it. Also seeing your 5 year olds face playing with it is priceless as is my sons when he's messing around with his various lego sets :D

Ian

Ian, are you saying Lego is for kids? :eek: :shock:

:lol:
 

Palifan

Sith Lord
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Messages
4,902
jedisearcher said:
Palifan said:
monkey_roo said:
Yeah, but this isn't an isolated thing, which is more worrying.

The batcave before it was a bit of a misstep, this years exclusive was a pointless trooper.

I see what you're saying about this years exclusive trooper but I must admit that I really like the Batcave, do you think it's a misstep due to there not being enough fans of the TV series buying lego or the set itself?

The new Hoth set does seem a slightly slim release if you have the other sets but for anyone who has no Hoth lego then it's a great place to start. I'm sure it's going to look great set up with all the older sets so do post a picture up when you get around to it. Also seeing your 5 year olds face playing with it is priceless as is my sons when he's messing around with his various lego sets :D

Ian

Ian, are you saying Lego is for kids? :eek: :shock:

:lol:

Only some of it :D

Ian
 

ScruffyLookingNH

Sith Lord
Supporter
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
2,990
sith-smith said:
You think that will go for crazy money once retired?

Being the second Sand Crawler done will mean it won't skyrocket like the Executor did or perhaps even the Shuttle Tyderium, but on actual retirement prices should hit £300-£350 with near £400 being the norm within a month or two. I think it'll top out at £450.

It's a vast improvement over the original in looks and functionality and falls under the UCS label (don't think the original did?) so that adds a small X factor.
 

monkey_roo

Sith Lord
Joined
Apr 1, 2011
Messages
1,999
I don't mind the batcave, for strange reasons that involved my wife bribing my son to switch bedrooms we bought it at the weekend as well.

But much like the Assult on Hoth set it just isn't complete and overall struggles to justify the price tag. The figures are fun, the car great, but after that it just isn't a 220 set, also like you say, there just isn't a major fan base. The one off car they did at SDCC was great and justifiable, but a full set and a roughly finished one at that seems miss judged, almost like Lego just feel they can flog anything, like they are untouchable.

I like the Assult on Hoth, otherwise it wouldn't have bought it and as a play set I think it works well, like you say it was fun to watch my son play with it and add his figures to it etc. But it is being sold as an UCS at top dollar, the blurb describes it as iconic and the very zenith of Hoth sets, yet we have seen all but an inaccurate generator and ion cannon before.

When you look at the last few UCS we see Slave 1, Sandcrawler, Tie-Fighter, even the Ewok Village, these are all complete and stunning to look at, not to mention challenging builds, the Assult on Hoth set took a couple of hours to build and most of it my kids did, again not UCS standards.

The big issue was the marketing, packaging and branding, this should have been a 170 system set and then people would have be all over it.

One of my worries is we might be seeing a trend here, lower quality and a growing arrogance from Lego that us fans will just lap up whatever they throw at us. We are already hearing the planned UCS Snowspeeder has been pulled for this year, leaving us with a Death Star at the end of the year, not much known there but the roumor is it is an update of the recently retired one but I guarantee it will be more expensive, will the updated figures justify it, is a it a major overhaul, who knows?
 

ScruffyLookingNH

Sith Lord
Supporter
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
2,990
Quick heads up. If you haven't got one then my local Sainsburys has 75052 Mos Eisley Cantina for about 20% discounted price of £48.50.

Although that's not a huge discount this is (and has been for at least a month) a retired set and, if like me, you missed it then it'll currently set you back £80+ on eBay.

Here's a link to the Lego site showing the set. Quality set with good amount of minifigures:

http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/Mos-Eisley-Cantina-75052#
 

sith-smith

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 25, 2006
Messages
7,391
Amazing set if you can get it. Lots of figures, some nice additional parts (Dewback and Landspeeder) and the cantina itself is pretty cool 8)
 

sith-smith

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 25, 2006
Messages
7,391
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/23/lego-arms-race-study-says-company-making-more-violent-toys
 

Spookedhippie

Sith Lord
Joined
Dec 11, 2012
Messages
1,205
Thanks for posting Gary, a very interesting, and in some ways, worrying report! I bet they'll have history books in hundreds of years using Lego as their evidence of how the world was!
 

Palifan

Sith Lord
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Messages
4,902
If it sells they'll make it but I think this set is worth a vote to help support it, it's got my vote :D - https://ideas.lego.com/projects/137916

Ian
 

Palifan

Sith Lord
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Messages
4,902
sith-smith said:
Is there a good chance it will go ahead if it gets enough support?


You never know with these things. I get the feeling they put a bunch of them up together that get the required votes and decide from there which one they want to go ahead with. Maybe market research goes into it with making something a little different each time (or perhaps as simple as who gets the required votes the quickest).

It's a slight mystery but I'm sure there's some kind of method to it (there is a section on this on the latest Lego documentary but I can't remember what was said).

Ian
 

ScruffyLookingNH

Sith Lord
Supporter
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
2,990
Great Adams Family set, just voted for it. Thanks for highlighting, Ian.

The process is that 10k votes get's it to a sort of round table discussion at Lego. They look at a range of factors, not least how much money can be made from it. That comes down to whether it can be sourced from existing pieces or new tooling needs to be considered, how many sets they can shift, whether it fits into their target market and whether it brings something new to the range.

The only issue I see with them doing it is that it would be part of the Lego Ideas range and, to date, the largest of those sets has been a few hundred pieces. The Adams Family set would need to be a couple of thousand and so is a bit of a risk: The set doesn't fit in with an existing "theme" (other than Ideas) so would be unlikely to appeal to the wider cross section of the market. I'd buy one but I don't think that would swing Lego.

As for Lego becoming more "weaponized" I think that's an inevitability with the franchises they've taken on rather than Lego themselves deliberately looking to include weapons. All the Marvel comics they have sets for involve conflict, same with the DC sets. Star Wars explains in the title it's about conflict! Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings and even Harry Potter (I bet the counted the wands as weapons!) all involve conflict. More a sign of society than a sign of Lego following society, I think. On the other hand look at all the popular lines and items they've done that don't involve conflict: Wall-E, Ghostbusters (arguably it does and arguably the proton packs are weapons but I'd go with "tools"), The Simpsons, all the Disney sets, Angry Birds (angry but not armed!), all of them unarmed. And Lego's biggest own brand launch in the last couple of decades? Lego Friends. Not only aimed at girls but not even a handbag swinging feature amongst the sets!

Yes, Lego sets contain more weapons than ever but those are due to the franchises purchases rather than Lego designing violence into sets.
 

sith-smith

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 25, 2006
Messages
7,391
I'd love the Addams set. I feel the monster fighters set could have had a lot more in it, so anything that could loosely fit in with that would be good 8)
 

Palifan

Sith Lord
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Messages
4,902
ScruffyLookingNH said:
Great Adams Family set, just voted for it. Thanks for highlighting, Ian.

The process is that 10k votes get's it to a sort of round table discussion at Lego. They look at a range of factors, not least how much money can be made from it. That comes down to whether it can be sourced from existing pieces or new tooling needs to be considered, how many sets they can shift, whether it fits into their target market and whether it brings something new to the range.

The only issue I see with them doing it is that it would be part of the Lego Ideas range and, to date, the largest of those sets has been a few hundred pieces. The Adams Family set would need to be a couple of thousand and so is a bit of a risk: The set doesn't fit in with an existing "theme" (other than Ideas) so would be unlikely to appeal to the wider cross section of the market. I'd buy one but I don't think that would swing Lego.

As for Lego becoming more "weaponized" I think that's an inevitability with the franchises they've taken on rather than Lego themselves deliberately looking to include weapons. All the Marvel comics they have sets for involve conflict, same with the DC sets. Star Wars explains in the title it's about conflict! Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings and even Harry Potter (I bet the counted the wands as weapons!) all involve conflict. More a sign of society than a sign of Lego following society, I think. On the other hand look at all the popular lines and items they've done that don't involve conflict: Wall-E, Ghostbusters (arguably it does and arguably the proton packs are weapons but I'd go with "tools"), The Simpsons, all the Disney sets, Angry Birds (angry but not armed!), all of them unarmed. And Lego's biggest own brand launch in the last couple of decades? Lego Friends. Not only aimed at girls but not even a handbag swinging feature amongst the sets!

Yes, Lego sets contain more weapons than ever but those are due to the franchises purchases rather than Lego designing violence into sets.


Thanks for all the insight into the way Lego make their choices. It's along the lines of what I suspected and I'm going to hold out some hope that this Adams family set gets the go ahead (although you might be right about it being a long shot with the size of it).

Ian
 

starshipriot

Jedi Master
Joined
May 20, 2013
Messages
513
Location
Scotland
Heya guys

Doing a review of 1999 star wars lego sets and how excited I was as s 9 year old when I first saw this pic in the beano. Does anyone have a version in english?

Thanks!

ke83e1.jpg
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom